Linesman assaults player at Russian football match

Moscow, April 29 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A top Russian football official accused a linesman Sunday of hitting a young player who abused him at a match between two Premier League clubs' reserve teams.

Linesman Musa Kadyrov punched 18-year-old defender Ilya Krichmar and then kicked him as he lay on the ground, according to Alexei Spirin, head of the Russian FA's inspection committee, which examines refereeing.

The incident followed Terek Grozny's 2-1 win over Krichmar's Amkar Perm in a reserves game Friday in the city of Grozny in Kadyrov's home region of Chechnya.

"After the game, left-back Ilya Krichmar, who was standing near the referee's assistant Musa Kadyrov, said something to him. As it later turned out, he used offensive language including insults to his mother," Spirin said.

"And then (Kadyrov) threw away his flag and rushed onto the pitch, about four or five metres, hit him in the area of the neck."

"(Krichmar) fell down and the official started to kick him, but the players rushed over quickly," he added. "The Terek players, they restrained this linesman, who was trying to say something insulting."

Spirin said the player had been given a red card on review by the FA and that Kadyrov had been given an official "fail grade" in an FA report. The linesman could yet face further punishment.

Cases of football players being attacked by referees or linesmen are rare - the opposite is more often the case.

Thursday, Indonesian striker Pieter Rumaropen was banned for life for hospitalising a referee with a punch to the face, while last month a Lebanese referee said he feared for his life as angry players chased him following a red card.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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